FLORIDA NO. 1 IN COLLEGIATE BASEBALL POLL

TUCSON, Ariz. — Florida (28-6) is ranked No. 1 in Collegiate Baseball’s NCAA Div. I baseball poll presented by Big League Chew bubble gum.

The Gators, winners of nine of their last 10, are on top of the Collegiate Baseball poll for the fourth time this season. Last week Florida won two of three against Tennessee and beat Florida Gulf Coast in a mid-week game.

Florida has belted 52 home runs in 34 games and delivered 132 extra base hits while hitting .295 and averaging 7.6 runs per game. The pitching staff has a 3.07 ERA with 299 strikeouts and 99 walks.

In key series over the past weekend, Stanford lost two of three at UCLA, Oregon St. lost two of three at Arizona, N.C. State won two of three at Louisville, Mississippi lost two of three at Mississippi State, Georgia lost two of three at Vanderbilt, Florida State lost two of three at Georgia Tech., Arkansas swept Auburn three straight, East Carolina took two of three at Washington, Oklahoma won two of three at Texas Christian, Louisiana State lost two of three at Texas A&M and North Carolina won two of three at Miami (Fla.).

Poll Notes: Several teams are red-hot. Tennessee Tech. has won 16 in a row while Michigan has won 15 straight. Texas has won 6 consecutive games, Arkansas 5 in a row and Oklahoma 9 of its last 11.

Four teams fell out of the top 30 in Stetson (1-3 last week), Missouri (2-2), Auburn (1-3) and Southern Mississippi (3-2). New to the poll is Tennessee Tech. (25-5), Texas (22-12), Michigan (19-11) and Texas A&M (23-9).

The Collegiate Baseball newspaper poll is the oldest college baseball poll. Its birth took place during the 1959 college baseball season.

Collegiate Baseball’s
NCAA Div. I Baseball Poll
(As of April 9, 2018)
Presented By
www.bigleaguechew.com

Collegiate Baseball’s
National Players Of The Week

LHP Scotty Sunitsch, Washington State: Sunitsch fired the 25th no-hitter in Washington State history during a 7-0 win over Oregon. He struck out a career-high nine and only needed 95 pitches to complete nine innings. It also marked the Cougars’ first solo 9-inning no-hitter since 1976.   

RHP Austin Schulfer, Milwaukee: Schulfer struck out 15 batters of the 21 he faced during an 8-4 win against Northern Kentucky over seven innings. He struck out the side twice and had at least two strikeouts in every inning but one.

RHP Chandler Day, Vanderbilt: Day struck out 10 batters over 5 innings of relief work during a 5-3 win over Georgia.    

C Nick Gatewood, Georgia State: Gatewood was 8-for-15 with 4 home runs, 11 RBI and 9 runs scored over 4 games. He hit .533 on the week with a 1.400 slugging percentage while catching 34 of 35 innings.   

OF Niko Hulsizer, Morehead State: Hulsizer returned from a month-long injury to go 7-for-12 over a 3-game series against Tennessee-Martin as he belted 3 homers, score 6 runs and compile 4 RBI with a slugging percentage of 1.333.

DH/OF Jared Mihalik, Furman: Mihalik belted 4 home runs in 4 games last week as he collected 9 RBI and went 8-for-17 at the plate. He had one home run in each game. What makes his achievement even more impressive is that he only had three starts and 19 at-bats on the season prior to moving into the starting lineup last week.

RHP Cooper Criswell, North Carolina: Criswell had a dominating performance against Miami (Fla.) during a relief appearance as he struck out 13 batters in 5 2/3 innings. In fact, 13 of 17 outs were recorded via the strikeout as he gave up one run and walked none.

LHP Kyle Flessner, Purdue Northwest: Flessner struck out a program record 16 batters during a 7-inning game against Wayne State (MI) in a 5-0 win.   

LHP Alex Ross, Johns Hopkins: Ross fanned a career-record15 Muhlenberg batters during a 1-0 complete game win. It was the fourth highest strikeout total in school history.